A tunable balanced dual‐band BPF with quasi‐independently controlled center frequency and bandwidth

In this paper, a balanced dual‐band bandpass filter (BPF) with high selectivity and low insertion loss performance is presented by employing stub loaded resonators (SLRs) and stepped impedance resonators (SIRs) into balanced microstrip‐slotline (MS) transition structures. The balanced MS transition structures can achieve a wideband common‐mode (CM) suppression which is independent of the differential‐mode (DM) response, significantly simplifying the design procedure. Six varactors are loaded into the resonators to achieve the electrical reconfiguration. The proposed balanced dual‐band BPF can realize quasi‐independently tunable center frequencies and bandwidths. A tuning center frequency from 2.48 to 2.85 GHz and a fractional bandwidth (20.16%‐7.02%) with more than 15 dB return loss and less than 2.36 dB insertion loss are achieved in the first passband. The second passband can realize a tuning center frequency from 3.6 to 3.95 GHz with more than 12 dB return loss and less than 2.38 dB insertion loss. A good agreement between the simulated and measured results is observed.     

A balanced tri‐band bandpass filter with high selectivity and controllable bandwidths

In this article, a balanced tri‐band bandpass filter (BPF) with high selectivity and controllable bandwidths is proposed. Two differential‐mode (DM) passbands are formed by applying stepped impedance resonators into the design. Uniform impedance resonators are introduced to realize the third DM passband. Moreover, frequencies and bandwidths of DM passbands can be independently controlled by the lengths of resonators and the gaps between them. In addition, good DM transmission can be realized while high common‐mode suppression is achieved intrinsically without affecting the DM parts, thereby simplifying the design procedure significantly. In order to validate the practicability, a balanced tri‐band BPF operating at 2.45 GHz, 3.5 GHz, and 4.45 GHz is fabricated and designed. A good agreement between the simulated and measured results is observed.     

A highly selective balanced wideband bandpass filter based on nested split‐ring resonators

A balanced wideband bandpass filter (BPF) with a high frequency selectivity, controllable bandwidth, and good common‐mode (CM) suppression based on nested split‐ring resonators (SRRs) is proposed in this article. The proposed nested SRRs are applied to form three transmission poles (TPs) that can achieve a wide differential‐mode (DM) passband centered at 3.0 GHz. Meanwhile, two transmission zeros (TZs) are generated to realize a high frequency selectivity of the DM passband. Moreover, TPs and TZs can be quasi‐independently controlled by changing the physical lengths of SRRs and the gaps between them, which can greatly improve the flexibility and practicality of the design. The proposed balanced BPF is fed by balanced microstrip‐slotline (BMS) transition structures. For the CM signals, the BMS transition structures can achieve a good wideband CM suppression without affecting the DM ones, thereby simplifying the design procedure. In order to validate its practicability, a balanced wideband BPF is fabricated and a good agreement between the simulated and measured results is obtained.     

A balanced dual‐band bandpass filter with a wide stopband and controllable differential‐mode frequencies and fractional bandwidths

In this article, a balanced microstrip dual‐band bandpass filter (BPF) is designed. The proposed filter is achieved by employing a microstrip U‐shape half‐wavelength resonator, a folded stub‐loaded resonator and balanced microstrip/slotline transition structures. The center frequencies and the fractional bandwidths of the two differential‐mode (DM) passbands can be controlled independently by changing the physical lengths of the two resonators and the gaps between each resonator, respectively. The balanced microstrip/slotline transition structures can achieve a wideband common‐mode (CM) suppression. Meanwhile, the DM passbands are independent from the CM responses, which significantly simplify the design procedure. In addition, a wide DM stopband is also realized. In order to validate the design strategies, a balanced dual‐band BPF centered at 2.57 and 3.41 GHz was fabricated and a good agreement between the simulated and measured results is observed.     

A balanced dual‐band BPF with independently controllable frequencies and bandwidths

A balanced second‐order dual‐band bandpass filter (BPF) with independently controllable center frequencies and bandwidths based on coupled stepped‐impedance resonators (SIRs) is designed in this article. To obtain a dual‐band differential‐mode (DM) response, two pairs of SIRs with different resonant frequencies are employed in the design. The bandwidths of the two DM passbands can be independently tuned by adjusting the coupling gaps and coupling lengths of the corresponding resonators. In addition, three transmission zeros are realized to enhance the selectivity of the DM passbands. The microstrip‐slotline transition structure is utilized to achieve a wideband common‐mode (CM) suppression. Moreover, the DM responses are independent of the CM ones, which significantly simplify the design procedure. Finally, a balanced dual‐band BPF is designed to validate the design method and a good agreement between the simulated and measured results is observed.     

Independently controllable dual‐band microstrip bandpass filter using quadruple‐mode stub‐loaded resonator

In this article, a quadruple‐mode stub‐loaded resonator (QM‐SLR) is introduced and its four modes are excited using a simple approach, which can provide a dual‐band behavior. By changing the length of the loaded stubs, independently tunable transmission characteristics of the proposed quadruple‐mode stub‐loaded resonator were extensively described for filter design. Moreover, microwave varactors were adopted to represent the length variation of the loaded stubs for the dual‐band tunability. The equivalent circuit modeling of the open stub with microwave varactor was given and discussed. Then, adopting the compact quadruple‐mode stub‐loaded resonator with three varactors, an independently controllable dual‐band bandpass filter (BPF) was designed, analyzed, and fabricated. Its separated bandwidths and transmission zeros can be tuned independently by changing the applying voltage of the microwave varactors. A good agreement between simulated and measured results verified the design methodology. The proposed filter possesses compact size, simple structure, and excellent dual‐band performances. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 26:602–608, 2016.     

Dual‐wideband differential bandpass filter with intrinsic common‐mode suppression based on hybrid transmission structure

Based on the microstrip‐line/slot‐line hybrid transmission structure, a novel method of realizing dual‐wideband differential bandpass filter (DDBPF) is proposed and demonstrated in this paper. By virtue of hybrid transmission structure, the proposed DDBPF has intrinsic common mode (CM) rejection. Moreover, the dual‐wideband transmission performance of differential mode (DM) signal can be approached by using two dual‐mode stub‐loaded stepped‐impedance resonators. The two passbands of the proposed DDBPF are respectively centered at 2.76 GHz and 4.12 GHz which fractional bandwidths are 20.7% and 11.4%. The DM harmonic suppression can extend to 43.5 GHz with rejection level of 13 dB. The CM attenuation of DDBPF can reach 60 dB within DM passband. Furthermore, the CM suppression with attenuation level of 20 dB is ranging from 0.5 GHz to 43.5 GHz. The measurement results are in good agreement with the simulation results, which validates the effectiveness of proposed design methodology.     

Novel planar balanced bandpass filter with wideband common‐mode suppression and in‐band common‐mode noise absorption

This paper presents a novel planar balanced bandpass filter (BPF) with wideband common mode (CM) noise suppression and in‐band CM noise absorption using coupled lines (CLs) with short‐circuited stubs to realize high selectivity and wideband differential mode (DM) filtering performance. Two one‐quarter wavelength stubs loaded with grounded resistors are introduced to realize wideband CM noise suppression. Thus, CM noise can be suppressed under a certain level at all frequencies. Four resistors are used to achieve CM noise absorption by dissipating the CM noise into heat, which can avoid the noise being reflected to the communication system and realize a wide absorption bandwidth with 90% absorption efficiency. For demonstration, an absorptive balanced BPF operating at 3.5 GHz with wide 3‐dB fractional bandwidth (FBW) of 79.43% is fabricated and experimentally validated. It is worth noted that the absorptive balanced BPF can realize broadband CM noise suppression from 0 to 8 GHz, and the CM noise is well absorbed more than 10 dB from 2.41 to 4.63 GHz. Besides, wideband CM noise absorption with 90% efficiency from 2.51 to 4.60 GHz is realized, which indicates potential applications in improving the performance of the balanced radio frequency (RF) circuits. Good agreements between the simulated and measured results are observed.     

Design of high selectivity tri‐band bandpass filter with wide upper stopband

This article presents a dual‐plane structure high selectivity tri‐band bandpass filter (BPF) which consists of a pair of T‐shaped microstrip feed lines with capacitive source‐load coupling as well as spur lines embedded, and three resonators, i.e., a dual‐mode stub‐loaded stepped impedance resonator and two nested dual‐mode defected ground structure resonators. Using the intrinsic characteristics of the resonators and feed lines, nine transmission zeros near the passband edges and in the stopband can be generated to achieve high selectivity. An experimental tri‐band BPF located at 2.4/5.7 GHz [wireless local area networks (WLAN) application] and 3.5 GHz [worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) application] has been simulated and fabricated. Good agreement between the simulated and measured results validates the design approach. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2013.     

A BTB UWB power divider with arbitrary power‐dividing ratio based on three‐slotline structure

In this article, a balanced‐to‐balanced (BTB) ultra‐wide band (UWB) power divider (PD) is proposed, which can realize arbitrary power‐dividing ratio (PDR) with improved transmission bandwidth flatness. The proposed PD is primarily based on microstrip/slotline (MS) transition structures and parallel‐coupled three‐slotline structure. U‐type microstrip feed lines integrated with stepped‐impedance slotline resonators are adopted at the input and output ports, which make the differential‐mode (DM) responses independent of the common‐mode (CM) ones. Meanwhile, superior DM transmission and CM suppression are achieved intrinsically, thereby simplifying the design procedure significantly. By changing the distances between the coupled three slotlines, the PDR between the output ports is controllable. In order to verify the feasibility of the proposed design method, several prototype circuits of the proposed PDs with different PDRs are simulated and a prototype circuit with the 2:1 PDR is fabricated and measured. A good agreement between the simulation and measurement results is observed.     

Direct synthesis of compact wideband differential bandpass filter on composite triple‐mode resonator

In this paper, a direct synthesis approach is proposed for design of a compact wideband differential‐mode (DM) bandpass filter (BPF) on a composite triple‐mode resonator. By virtue of intrinsic common‐mode (CM) suppression in slotline portion, only the DM transmission performances need to be focused on in our design, so as to facilitate the design process. Consequently, a synthesis approach based on an equivalent simplified network is established to design this DM BPF, resulting to directly determine all the circuit element values. A wideband DM BPF is then designed to validate effectiveness of proposed synthesis method. Finally, two circuit prototypes have been designed, fabricated, and measured. The synthesized, simulated and measured results agree well with each other over a wide operating band, which has demonstrated the proposed DM BPFs' attractive performances, such as wide bandwidth of operation, sharpened frequency selectivity, and good CM suppression.     

Multi‐mode resonators with quad‐/penta‐/sext‐mode resonant characteristics and their applications to bandpass filters

In this article, a new class of dual‐/tri‐band and ultra‐wideband (UWB) bandpass filters (BPFs) using novel multi‐mode resonators are proposed. The classical even‐/odd‐mode method is applied to analyze the resonant characteristics of the proposed resonators, which exhibit controllable resonant modes with different dimension parameters under the same configuration. According to the analysis, three resonators with quad‐/penta‐/sext‐mode resonant characteristics are obtained by choosing the specific dimension parameters. Then, the quad‐mode resonator is used to design a dual‐wideband BPF centred at 2.39/5.14 GHz with 3‐dB fractional bandwidths (FBWs) of 36.9%/18.9%, and the penta‐mode resonator is utilized to design an UWB BPF with 3‐dB FBW of 102.2%, whereas the sext‐mode resonator is applied to design a tri‐band BPF with centre frequencies of 2.09/3.52/5.46 GHz and 3‐dB FBWs of 11.3%/20%/12.1%. All these three filters are fabricated and measured, and the measured results are in good agreement with the simulated ones.     

Dual‐mode resonator with modified dual‐square‐Loop for WLAN and WiMAX quad‐band filter design

We propose the improved configurations with dual‐mode dual‐square‐loop resonators (DMDSLR) for quad‐band bandpass filter (BPF) design. The modified DMDSLR filter employs two sets of the loops. The square loop is designed to operate at the first and third resonated frequencies (2.4/5.22 GHz) and the G‐shaped loop is employed at the second and fourth resonated frequencies (3.59/6.6 GHz). The resonant frequency equations of DMDSLR are introduced for simply designing quad‐band BPF. Resonant frequencies can be controlled by tuning the perimeter ratio of the square loops. A systematic design procedure with the design map is applied for accuracy design. To obtain lower insertion loss, higher out‐of‐band rejection level and wider bandwidth of quad‐band, the miniaturized DMDSLR with meander‐line technique is proposed. The proposed filters are successfully simulated and measured showing frequency responses and current distributions. It can be applied to WLAN and WiMAX quad‐band systems. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 24:332–340, 2014.     

Compact dual‐band bandpass filter and diplexer using hybrid resonant structure with independently controllable dual passbands

In this article, a compact dual‐band bandpass filter (BPF) is developed using a hybrid resonant structure, which consists of a microstrip stub‐loaded dual‐mode resonator and a slotline stub‐loaded dual‐mode resonator. These two resonators, both having two controllable resonant modes and one transmission zero (TZ), are analyzed and used to construct two desired passbands of a dual‐band BPF. Multiple TZs are generated by introducing a source‐load coupling, thus improving the selectivity of the passbands. Then, the dual‐band BPF is reshaped to configure a compact diplexer. The inherent TZs of the two proposed resonators are designed to improve the frequency property and port isolation of the diplexer. Finally, a dual‐band BPF and a diplexer with the lower and upper passbands centered at 2.45 and 3.45 GHz, respectively, are designed, fabricated, and measured to verify the proposed structure and method.     

A novel balanced wideband power divider based on microstrip‐slot transitions

A novel design of a balanced wideband power divider (PD) with enhanced common‐mode (CM) suppression is proposed. The top and bottom layers of the structure contain tapered microstrip line. Those microstrip lines are coupled via slotline in the ground plane, which is located at the middle layer. With appropriate placement of the slotline, the coupling between the slotline mode and the differential‐mode (DM) signals can be maximized, while that between the slotline mode and the CM signals can be minimized. Simulated and measured results show that the proposed PD has equal power division, low insertion loss, and good return loss. In the measurement, the fractional bandwidth of the measured ?10 dB (DM) return loss is about 101% (1.82–5.35 GHz), the insertion loss for the DM signals is less than 5 dB, the suppression of the CM signals is higher than 45 dB, and the DM isolation is better than 10 dB over the fractional bandwidth. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 24:437–442, 2014.     

A 1‐to‐n way single‐ended‐to‐balanced substrate integrated waveguide filtering power splitter

An approach to 1‐to‐n (n = 3, 4…) way single‐ended‐to‐balanced filtering power splitter (SETBFPS) is proposed. The properly placed balanced ports with 0.5λ_g (λ_g is the substrate integrated waveguide [SIW] guided wavelength at f₀) space make the TE32nd 103 and TE32nd 105 modes of n 32nd‐mode SIW multimode resonators form differential‐mode (DM) passband of the SETBFPS. Compared with the state‐of‐art single‐ended‐to‐balanced power splitters, the proposed approach has all the functions of 1‐to‐n way, filtering, and common‐mode (CM) suppression. A 1‐to‐3 way prototype is exemplified at 3.5 GHz with the minimum insertion loss (IL) of 0.09 dB, a fractional bandwidth (FBW) for a 15‐dB return loss of 35%, and a FBW for 15‐dB CM suppression of 52%. Low IL and wide bandwidth can be observed.     

Independently controllable dual‐band filter using single quad‐mode silver‐loaded dielectric resonator

This article proposes a novel bandpass filter with two controllable passbands using a single quad‐mode silver‐loaded dielectric resonator (DR). The silver plane is inserted in the middle of the cubic DR and two degenerate pairs are used to build the two passbands. Because of the distinct E‐field distributions, the silver plane has significant effect on the degenerate pair (TE^x₁₁₂ and TE^y₁₁₂), whereas another one (TE^x₁₁₁ and TE^y₁₁₁) remains unchanged. With the aid of the silver plane, both center frequencies and bandwidths of the two bands can be controlled independently. To verify the proposed idea, a prototype dual‐band BPF is designed and fabricated. Good agreement between simulated and measured results can be observed.     

A new dual‐band single‐ended‐to‐balanced filtering power divider

This article proposes a new dual‐band single‐ended‐to‐balanced (SETB) filtering power divider (FPD), which shows the excellent characteristics of wideband common‐mode (CM) suppression and good selectivity. By employing the structure of double‐sided parallel‐strip line with a mid‐inserted conductor and a T‐shaped defected ground structure etched in the mid‐inserted conductor, out‐of‐phase behavior and high CM suppression can be achieved successfully. Besides, to realize dual‐wideband filtering performance and high selectivity, two pairs of step impedance stubs (SIS) loaded quarter‐wavelength central line‐terminal‐shorted three parallel‐coupled microstrip lines structure are adopted. Meanwhile, two pairs of resistors are introduced so as to realize excellent isolation. To verify effectiveness of the design method, a prototype of dual‐band SETB FPD which operates at 3.2 and 4.9 GHz is designed, fabricated, and tested. Final results exhibit that the new dual‐band SETB FPD possess high selective dual‐band differential mode response, wideband CM suppression, and excellent isolation between the balanced output ports.     

Half mode substrate‐integrated waveguide‐loaded evanescent‐mode bandpass filter

In this article, a filter size reduction of 46% is achieved by reducing a substrate‐integrated waveguide (SIW)‐loaded evanescent‐mode bandpass filter to a half‐mode SIW (HMSIW) structure. SIW and HMSIW filters with 1.7 GHz center frequency and 0.2 GHz bandwidth were designed and implemented. Simulation and measurements of the proposed filters utilizing combline resonators have served to prove the underlying principles. SIW and HMSIW filter cavity areas are 11.4 and 6.2 cm², respectively. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2013.     

An X‐band push‐push oscillator with parallel feedback configuration designed by microstrip balanced bandpass filter

In this article, a push‐push oscillator with parallel feedback configuration designed by the microstrip balanced bandpass filter (BPF) is proposed. The push‐push oscillator consists of two sub‐oscillators with a balanced BPF. The balanced BPF with the open‐circuited stubs exhibits the desired differential‐mode frequency response and achieves high common‐mode suppression simultaneously. Based on the technique of the balanced BPF, the out‐of‐phase fundamental signals and odd harmonic signals are canceled out while the even harmonic signals are well combined. The prototype of the push‐push oscillator is designed and fabricated. Measured results show that the proposed push‐push oscillator works at 9.96 GHz of the second harmonic frequency. The actual output power is ?8.57 dBm. The rejection of the fundamental signal and third harmonic signal are better than 27 and 42 dBc, respectively. The phase noise of the proposed push‐push oscillator is ?128.3 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz frequency offset.